Point of view
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Point of view of the analyst
Article 6. Standings at finish
Part 1
A bit more than five months ago I offered to you an article of meditation of who could possibly be the heroes of the season. Some of my forecast came true, others not, still surprises only make sport more attractive. The biathlon season is really short. Its round flew by the flags of hospitable biathlon arenas and stuck in the very middle of the Hochfilzen target, closed then with a snow white metal cover Made in Khanty.
Still this moment brought a lot of pleasure to the fans of this winter sport, constantly rising to the tops of popularity. Now when the whirlwind of emotions has calmed down, we can have the last look at final standings and then go on holidays.
Thinking of modern men biathlon I remember the famous 15-year old quotation of the famous English football-player Gary Linneker, who once said (after another defeat from the Germans): Football is a game played for 90 minutes by 22 men, and Germany always win. The same is right for biathlon World Cup, when about 100 athletes compete, but Bjoerndalen always wins.
The Norwegian used to say during the whole season that the World Cup is not the first priority to him. His aims were to win a World Championships gold and to perform in Oberstdorf (this year cross-country skiing World Championships venue) as a member of the Norwegian squad. He did both things to some extent. He was selected for cross-country championships (having sacrificed 7 (!) biathlon races for this) and being not so impressive in Germany in comparison with his biathlon teammate Lars Berger, didnt spoil the whole thing at all. In Austrian Hochfilzen he took the revenge. Everyone thought that four World Champion titles would be enough to satisfy his appetite for victories, when he announced that was going to attack till the last mass-start race in Khanty-Mansiysk, pressing the leader, Sven Fischer. At first, Fischer stood imperturbable, showing he was an equal rival during the first two rounds and having a lot of chances to regain the Globe. For that he only needed to finish in the top 8 in the last race.
According to one of the famous Murphys Laws, if anything can go wrong, it will. Severe cold, that was reigning in the Russian biathlon capital those days, subdued even the strong health of the woodcutters son. Doctors didnt allow him to start, thus breaking Fischers hopes to raise the trophy above his head for the third time.
What about Bjoerndalen then? The Cup came to him on a silver platter and he only had to take care not to let it fall. But his hands didnt let go neither 4 gold medals, nor the Globe (as well as 3 small cups, 2 of which he generously shared with Raphael Poiree and Michael Greis).
Hes just a lucky guy, you could say.
Hes a real King, statistics will immediately answer.
Ole Einar has 12 victories, he was never worse than on the 7th place, finally, he won the World Championships. He won more than the half of the races, he took part in (12 of 20 races), which only emphasizes that this victory is completely deserved.
Still, Sven Fischer can also enter this season on his account. Only the most faithful fans of his could believe that he would compete for the Cup up to the last day. And the bookmakers accepted bets for his success as 1 for 30. But the German showed he is firm enough not to falter because of Bjoerndalens pressing, and able to go through the whole season without drastic falls. Bjoerndalen is an indubitable winner, but we cant call Fischer a loser, in contrast to Raphael Poiree. The absolute triumpher of the last year had to be content with one bronze medal and a small globe in mass-start. The only thing to please his fans is his victory in the last race. It might have been a herald of his return in the Olympic season, when hell get his last chance to win the only trophy he doesnt have in his collection.
Russians are still rather far from the top 3, nevertheless Tchepikov, Rozhkov and Krouglov improved their results greatly since last year. At the beginning of the season Nikolay said that there are about 30 athletes able to win and his words came true. This year Egil Gjelland, Stian Eckhoff, Michael Greis, and Alexandre Syman celebrated first career victories. Nikolay Krouglov himself joined them after winning pursuit in Pokljuka in a brilliant style.
It all means that not by Bjoerndalen alone lives men biathlon now.
Part 2
Russian women won another Nations Cup and Relay Cup and another time failed to celebrate individual victory: neither a World Championships gold, nor the so long-awaited Crystal Globe, which they haven't regained since about ten years ago and were so eager to fight for at the beginning of the season. On the whole their relations with the Globe have been fatal so far. It seems to be just at the horizon, but all attempts to approach it are useless cause it flies away just as the horizon does. These are the sad thoughts coming to my mind after Albina Akhatova (two years ago) and Olga Pylevas (for the last two seasons) failures to obtain it.
The tension of the desperate fight for the prestigious trophy grew to its maximum in Khanty- Mansiysk, when the margin between Pyleva and Sandrine Bailly reduced to just 20 points. We could feel that the responsibility extremely pressed on both of the athletes, which can be the only possible explanation of their terribly poor shooting. But Olga was in an even worse situation: the overfilled Khantys stadium demanded that she should only win, while the tiredness collected during the season didnt let her do more. As a result, the French took the lead just a race before the end of the season and managed to keep it safe due to better skiing, when completely demoralized Pyleva even yielded the second place to Kati Wilhelm.
The women biathlon leaders doesnt limit to this top 3. Olga Zaitseva did a good progress this season, winning a gold, a silver and a bronze medal at the WCH and winning the final race. But for the January recession and missing Antholz she could certainly achieve more.
We should certainly name Ursula Disl one of the heroines of the season, cause she managed to become a World Champion for the first time in her 15-year career. We should not forget about Chinese athletes who go on increasing turnover. Liu Xianying has been in the world elite for a long time already, now we are getting used to the success of her teammates. Apparently the times, when the nations-leaders, Russia, Germany and Norway will have to make some room at the top, are just around the corner.
The main disappointment of the season was the performance of the last year biathlon queen Liv Grete Poiree. Her fall in physical preparation could be explained by a strategy for the Olympics, but the psychological instability and missing some of the stages make us think of a deep crisis. At the same time we know that the thoughts of the 4 times Oberhof World Champion have been rather far from biathlon recently.
Anna Bogali, who got married before this season, showed an unstable and chaotic performance, nevertheless, we had a chance to see that her potential is still very high, while a certain recession is normal for her age.
On the whole we could see that none of the biathletes can secure her position on the throne, left three years ago by the incomparable Magdalena Forsberg. Poiree, Pyleva and Disl too long waited on the secondary positions to take the lead now. Martina Glagow and Albina Akhatova are facing health problems and problems with physical training, while the new generation of biathletes needs time to gain stable results.
But this anarchy seems to come to an end. Sandrine Bailly did quite a claim for the leadership this season. If she manages to secure her speed and improve her standing shooting, it will be quite a problem to compete with her. Among those able to I would point out Olga Zaitseva, who improved her skiing. She has now only one problem, which is insufficient speed of shooting, and we know very well that shooting fast is not less important than running fast.
And here I tend again to have a look in future, but lets stay on the present now. Hope to see you next season.
Ali, 30/03/2005
Translated by Wilhelmina.
Article 1. Coming season: the kings and suite.
Article 2. Witch-hunt or is everybody equal in rights?
Article 3. Scandinavian trilogy
Article 5. Nine days that are worth a year, or play-off a la biathlon.
